Lewis Hamilton has declared he is in the “best place” he has been at Ferrari, with a new car that carries his “DNA” as the seven-time world champion looks to put a difficult debut season behind him. Hamilton finished sixth in the drivers’ championship last year, failing to secure a podium for the first time in his career and trailing teammate Charles Leclerc, who was fifth. He described his first season with the Scuderia as a “nightmare”.
However, after a winter of regrouping, Hamilton presented a buoyant figure at the final pre-season test in Bahrain. “I’ve gone through quite a bit and left everything, all of last year, behind me,” he said. “I spent a lot of time rebuilding over this winter, refocusing, really getting my body and my mind to a much better place.”
Unlike last season, when Hamilton inherited a car already designed under stable regulations, he has had a hand in shaping the new model. “Last year we were locked into a car that ultimately I inherited,” he said. “This is a car that I’ve been able to be a part of developing on the simulator for the last 10 months, eight months and so like a bit of my DNA is within it, so I’m more connected to this one for sure.”
Hamilton reaffirmed his commitment to Ferrari’s long-term project. “My belief in the team is still absolutely the same. I understand the faith in this team and what they’re capable of and that’s why I joined the team,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be an overnight thing where we’d have success immediately, that’s why I signed a longer deal, because I knew it was a process.”
Meanwhile, the FIA is set to address a controversy over Mercedes’s use of a loophole in engine compression ratio regulations. It is believed Mercedes have gained an advantage by exploiting a higher ratio than the mandated 16:1 when measured cold. A proposal to change the rules, measuring the ratio at an operating temperature of 130°C from 1 August, will be voted on in the next 10 days and requires a super-majority of five of the seven committee members.
In testing, George Russell topped the timesheets for Mercedes on the first day of the final session, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Leclerc. The session also trialled a new starting procedure, with an additional five-second hold before the usual start sequence, to address concerns about cars at the back of the grid not having enough time to bring turbos up to speed.
